Sunsetting Your ERP? Save Cost Without Sacrifice

Sunsetting your ERP can cause sleep loss and stress for executive teams, even at large, well-known fashion brands and retailers. Your ERP is being killed off, and a lot is riding on how to move forward.

Many CEOs, CIOs, CFOs and business leaders are staring into this IT sunset, and it’s not a pretty sight.

• What should we do about sunsetting our ERP solution?
• How can we minimize expense, risk, and business disruption?
• Can we reduce our software vendor count with a different ERP solution?
• What ERP will support current operations and our long-term strategic roadmap?

This is a pivotal time, with challenging decisions to make. However, the solution might not be as difficult as you think. “When an ERP is sunsetting, businesses lose vital technical support and new features development. They need to transition while keeping IT costs down and ensuring uninterrupted business operations,” said Matt Brosious, vice president, strategic accounts, CGS. “We offer a compelling alternative to the pricey ‘Big 3’ ERP providers, some of which do not offer industry-specific features out of the box. Our CGS BlueCherry platform delivers ready-built, flexible fashion and retail features, reliability, low risk, reasonable cost, and scale to support future plans.”

Make a Smooth ERP Transition — Easily and Affordably

You don’t have to invest in an exorbitantly expensive, overly complicated ERP solution to obtain excellent performance. “We have a customer base of over 500 companies on our ERP, including some of the most complex fashion companies with staggering transaction volumes,” said Fred Isenberg, vice president, Applications Solution Group, CGS. “We aren’t worried about scalability and complexity; our system was built from the ground up to support it.”

Stability of Finance Functionality

Concern about financial systems disruption understandably gives executives reason to pause before considering alternatives to their incumbent ERP provider — even if that vendor stops supporting its existing ERP. However, it is possible to:

• Keep your financial systems in place
• Move other business processes to an agnostic ERP solution

“Agnostic, in an information technology (IT) context, refers to something that is generalized so that it is interoperable among various systems,” said Gavin Wright, TechTarget technology writer. “If a product is designed in an agnostic way, it can be purchased and used by any customer no matter what type of system they already have.”

• Agnostic Advantage: CGS BlueCherry ERP works equally well whether a company chooses to keep its current financial operations software or use BlueCherry for financial processes.
• Compatibility: BlueCherry seamlessly connects to all major financial software, including SAP, Infor/Lawson, Oracle and others. Keep uninterrupted use of existing software for general ledger accounting, fixed asset management, regulatory reporting and other core financial activities.

Ready-Built Database for High-SKU Product Portfolios

“Ma, it’s in there” … what a memorable phrase of the classic Prego pasta sauce commercial. No need to add more ingredients. The same applies to the right ERP — ready-built for every conceivable SKU and process your business manages. It’s a huge advantage when your new ERP solution offers a database and functions equipped to house every data element in your brand portfolio and all supply chain activities.

The more ready-to-go ERP functionality, the less need for multiple software vendors. “CIOs and CTOs are frustrated by the many inconveniences of managing multiple vendors. Their goal of more efficient and affordable services is hindered by multi-vendor pain points,” according to a CIO Magazine article. “Look for opportunities to streamline and consolidate multiple support needs using a single vendor who can provide a unified, end-to-end approach.”

• Complexity? Check it off the list. CGS BlueCherry delivers the most extensive database for high-SKU product portfolios, including those of fashion, footwear, home goods and accessories brands, retailers, and manufacturers. Rest easy knowing the ERP migration process will be efficient and nondisruptive — without budget overruns or surprise add-on development costs.
• Capabilities: Ready-made features and reports accommodate global supply chain visibility and omnichannel order management. This includes managing bills of materials (BOM), costing, multi-tier vendor networks, distributed order fulfillment and track-and-trace reporting.
• APIs: Pre-built application programming interfaces (API) connect and integrate quickly to other business solutions, plus major customers, online shopping marketplaces and third-party logistics providers (3PL).
• Open Software Development Framework: Smoothly and cost-effectively transfer your company’s unique modifications and customizations from your legacy ERP solution into the BlueCherry Next platform. Your ERP configuration is automatically maintained and updated on the core BlueCherry solution.

Reduce Risks, Scale Confidently

You don’t have to stay with the “Big 3” of ERP or other solutions that box your company into:

• Enormous financial commitments
• Long implementation timelines
• Complex and costly customization

There are viable alternatives offering lower risk, greater cost savings and better flexibility and scale.

“ERP scalability refers to the ability of an ERP system to handle increased workloads, transactions, users or data without compromising performance, functionality or reliability,” said the LinkedIn article “How Do You Ensure ERP Scalability and Flexibility?”

“This is important for businesses that are looking to expand or experience seasonable spikes in demand. To achieve ERP scalability, it is recommended to choose an ERP system that is compatible with your existing infrastructure and can integrate with other systems and applications,” according to the article by LinkedIn’s ERP Implementations Group.

The CGS BlueCherry ERP platform offers a solution for your immediate business priorities and long-term IT roadmap.

System Stability, Security, Scalability

• System Availability/Uptime: 99.9% cloud-based system availability including high-volume peak usage.
• Strong Cybersecurity: Management of anti-virus and firewall activity, plus backup monitoring to ensure your data and systems are protected. CGS IT Management Services, including Cybersecurity Services, keep your company’s information secure and compliant. This frees IT teams to focus on other strategic priorities, knowing cyber risks and security are under control.
• Scalability: Large fashion brands often have many departments, multiple divisions, and different business models. They manage millions of transactions and thousands of supply chain partners. CGS is no stranger to this world. Consider this customer example:
  • Global brand with ~30 operating divisions
  • 406 million style detail records sent to EDI trading partners each year
  • 1,000+ users on system simultaneously on typical day
  • 64 million sales order detail lines per year
  • 185,000 new sales orders daily
  • 1.7 million allocation lines regularly in process, run in under 45 minutes, with credit checks and approvals
  • 14 million invoices with 58 million invoice lines annually
  • Active data storage of 3 terabytes (TB) with 170 TB archived
  • 35 million carton details with 22 million headers per year
  • Technology Expertise and Performance Track Record
• Multinational Company Expertise
  • 500+ customers running BlueCherry ERP
  • Support for international operations
  • Local currencies and languages
• Global Customer Support
  • 65 million employee and customer interactions annually
  • 1-3, 24x7 support available via Help Desk, including access to certified engineers
  • 200+ cloud migration projects, including public, private and hybrid implementations
• Industry Knowledge and Tailored Solutions
  • 40 years of industry experience serving apparel, footwear, accessories, home goods and consumer lifestyle brands, retailers and wholesalers

Is the sun setting on your ERP solution? Contact CGS to learn more about BlueCherry® ERP and how we can help your team efficiently transition to an affordable, high-performance platform to support your most fundamental business activities.